Invulnerable
by Septdeneuf
Summary: After a nuclear attack on west city starts a war, the Z-Fighters find themselves seriously out of their depth. After all, how do you save humanity from itself?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Begins with a Bang

The lead article of the „West City courier" that morning was a marvel of investigative journalism. Meticulously researched, written in a clear and concise language and full of information that would turn out to be fateful not only to the citizens of that town, but by extension the whole world. It was an article truly worthy of receiving the grandest of prizes. Had the author only been alive 24 hours later.

The thing about newspapers, though. In order to be beneficial, they actually need to be read. And no one who came into the kitchen of the Capsule corporation living quarters that morning took the time to do that.

When 12 year old Trunks came in, skipping happily and awake at a much earlier hour than he usually would have even considered leaving his bed during summer break, he didn't even notice the newspaper on the counter, let alone glance at the headlines.

Today was the first day, after all, that he was allowed to fly to Goten's place on his own. For years he had been trying to convince his mother that he was perfectly capable of flying long distances without supervision, and finally she had conceded to let him fly to Goten's place this morning.

He knew it was a little silly to be this exited about that, since going to see Goten in and of itself was nothing special, but he had barely been able to sleep, eager to live out his new found freedom.

So he quickly grabbed a snack out of the fridge, and went outside. Goten was a morning person and sure to be up already, so Trunks decided not to waste any more time, and left for Mount Pazou. After all, if he got there early enough there was a good chance that he was going to be invited to have breakfast with the Son family. And that was really preferable to sticking around and watching his mother trying to cook.

Said mother came into the kitchen about half an hour later, and was actually glad to find that Trunks had already left. She really didn't want to have to cook for him today.

Bulma had found out only a few days ago that she was pregnant again, and even though that revelation alone had left her ecstatic, the morning sickness that came with it was slightly dimming her excitement this morning. She didn't think she'd be able to stand the smell of food today.

Just the thought made her feel nauseous. She looked around quickly, to see if anyone was watching her, and then puked into the sink.

As she left the kitchen she didn't even notice there was a newspaper there.

Vegeta, who came into the room about twenty minutes after Bulma had left was the only one who actually acknowledged the presence of the newspaper on the counter. He specifically chose not to read it, because the few times he had done so in the past had taught him that most things that humans where concerned about were so frustratingly trivial that he had always felt angry about wasting his time once he was done reading.

So instead he picked something to eat out of the fridge and went back into the gravity room where he'd already spent most of the morning.

Thus the newspaper was never even opened and the marvelous article within it not appreciated by anyone in the house. Even though it would probably would have been good for them to read it. Especially the prediction in the last paragraph that would all too soon turn out to be true.

* * *

„What are you doing here? Is the gravity room broken again?", Bulma asked with a groan, when she saw her husband stalk into her office clad only in tight spandex shorts. The sweat was glistening on his abs, and she felt a familiar feeling creep up her spine. But then she remembered that acting on that impulse was exactly the reason she had puked in her trash can not so long ago and decided not to do that right now.

„What? Not happy to see me?", he said with mock hurt in his voice.

„I'm always happy to see you with barely any clothes, you know that", she purred. She hadn't been able to keep the seductive tone out of her voice. Maybe acting on that impulse was still on the agenda.

„Well I appreciate…" he paused and sniffed the air. „Something smells weird in here…"

All to aware that it was her trash can, she quickly changed the topic. „So what's wrong with the gravity room?"

„I think it has confidence issues", he said, but kept sniffing for the source of that weird smell.

„Confidence issues?"

„Well the computer voice keeps telling me that for some reason it can only go to 300 times gravity, but it goes above that, easily."

„What, so the machine is fine, but the announcement system is broken?"

„Yes"

„And that's such an emergency that you come running?", she asked.

„No, but it's annoying. The damn thing keeps telling me that every five minutes" When she only rolled her eyes at him, he added in a more commanding tone, „Go fix it"

While he'd been saying that, he'd went around her office and found the source of the smell. „Uhm… you do know there's vomit in your trash can, right?", he asked a little bewildered.

„Yes, I made it myself", she said.

He seemed to be about to comment, but then he cocked his head to one side, as if he was listening to something, and just as suddenly flared into his super saiyan form. Before she could say anything, he grabbed her and let a protective shield flare up around them.

„Vegeta, what…"

The rest of her question was drowned out by the huge explosion that made the house around them vanish.

* * *

Even Vegeta hadn't been quite as aware of how good saiyan reflexes and instincs really were. Before the fact that he even had heard a sound had fully registered in his mind he was already reacting to it.

The blinding flash of light that followed, along with the explosion, was nowhere near where he had been looking, but it seemed to imprint itself on his retinas nonetheless. Between the ringing in his ears and the fact that he couldn't really see anything for a moment, he only had his senses that usually gave him the ability to home in on ki signatures to tell him where the explosion was and which direction he needed to fly in order to get away from it.

He flew as fast as he could away from there, his mate held securely in his grasp. He had no idea what was going on, but now wasn't the time to overanalyze their situation. He felt some of the heat of the explosion on his back and routed even more of his ki into maintaining and strengthening the shield that kept both him and his mate seperated from the madness that seemed to be going on outside.

His eyes were slowly readjusting and he could make out the shapes of buildings in front of him again. But before he could recognize any of them, a shockwave went through them and sent most of them shattering to the ground. The force of the shockwave was so intense that even he was having trouble maintaining his heading. The radius of that shockwave was much larger than he would've thought, and it took him several minutes to clear it.

In his arms Bulma was writhing and yelling something, but there was just too much noise around them for anything to be intelligible, so he just held onto her tightly, while scanning the area for a place to land.

As soon as he set down on a nearby mountain plateau Vegeta turned around to look at the city.

A huge cloud was looming over the town, and black stuff seemed to be raining down from it. Fallout.

„There's nuclear weapons on your planet? How come no ever mentioned that to me?", he asked and turned to look at his mate, whose eyes were transfixed on the mushroom-shaped cloud in front of them.

„Huh?", she said with a confused look. „Didn't we…? Guess it just didn't…" Her brain didn't seem to be working at its normal speed, and she was trembling.

He knew he wouldn't get anything coherent out of her, at this moment, but still, it seemed like a serious thing to omit. He really hated nuclear weapons. When he had still been working for Frieza he'd been sent to purge a planet, only to find that the inhabitants of that planet had already taken care of that themselves. There was nothing left beside some dead trees, and a chock full of radiation which had made most of the hair on Nappa's tail fall out. All three of them had needed to spend a week in a rejuvenation tank to get that crap out of their system, and that was a really long time, considering there hadn't been any combat on their assignment.

But he hadn't really thought the Earthlings would be ones to ruin their own planet like that. Apparently they weren't quite as nice and peace loving as most of his associates tried to make them out.

„This is…" Bulma was babbling something incoherent, and only slowly beginning to make sense again.

Suddenly her head snapped up. „Trunks!", she yelled. „Where's Trunks?"

„At Kakkarot's", he said.

„You sure?"

„Yes" When his son had left that morning he had actually been keeping a close watch on his ki signature, to see if he really went where he was supposed to. While he supported the notion of his son being allowed to fly on his own (mainly because he was annoyed at having to take him places he was perfectly capable of reaching on his own), Vegeta had had the sneaking suspicion that his son might be tempted to abuse this newfound freedom.

„Thank God", Bulma said with a sigh. Then she stared back into the city, and slowly the severity of the situation began to register on her mind. „But… mom… dad… and everyone else… so many…" she sank to her knees shaking her head slowly from side to side as if she refused to believe what her eyes were telling her.

Vegeta would've been lying if he claimed to be too bothered by how many people had died, because he'd seen too many more die, most of them by his own hand, for the demise of a large number of people to really register with him. But there was one thing that made the inhabitants of West City different to him than most. He knew some of them. Most humans he had contact with outside of their strange band of allies had been living in the city.

Most people he knew killed suddenly by a large explosion… the thought was just a little too familiar to him.

And another thing had just occured to him. He sent even more of his energy into the shield surrounding the two of them, but he had no idea if that would do any good. Because he really didn't have the experience to tell him whether a shield made of ki would let gamma-waves through, or not.

„Vegeta", Bulma said, looking up at him. „You're hurt."

He looked at her confused for a moment, but then saw that she was looking at his back, and sure enough, it was covered in burns. He'd been so concentrated that it hadn't even hurt. Up until now, of course. Now he quickly became all too aware of it.

„We should leave", he announced, and Bulma nodded numbly. He knew that usually she would have made much more of a fuss about this, but in her current state of mind she didn't seem to have the energy.

He picked her up again and set off away from the burning ruins of the city that had become his home over the last few years.

But he didn't think about that. If he had been able to receive burns like that, then what could've happened to Bulma.

And their unborn child?

* * *

A/N: Sorry it was so short, but this just seemed like the appropriate spot for this chapter to end. I think the next one will be longer.

Tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Trunks really wasn't a morning person, but the huge breakfast he'd just enjoyed did make him wonder whether maybe the whole idea of early birds that caught worms may have something to it after all. He sometimes didn't quite know what to think of Goten's mother, but one thing was for sure: She could cook.

„Mom, I wanna fly on my own", Goten said. They two of them were sitting in the kitchen, while Chi-chi was washing the dishes. Goten had actually volunteered they help, but his mother had said she didn't need them to. Which Trunks was very happy about, since one thing that came with being the richest kid on earth was the fact that he had never washed dishes by hand before, and he knew it would be embarrassing if he broke something.

„You always fly on your own. I just want you to have someone with you, when you do", Chi-chi explained calmly as she put away another plate.

„But Trunks got to fly alone, too." Whether or not a tiny super saiyan really needed supervision while flying had been a point of argument in their household as well.

„Trunks is a year older than you, sweetie", she said.

Goten looked disappointed for a moment, but then replied: „But I'm nicer!"

Trunks shot him a confused look, while Chi-chi just laughed. „No offense", Goten quickly added. „But I do get into less trouble."

„Well if Trunks' parents think it's the right time for him to start flying on his own, then that's their opinion, and I have mine."

„Did you let Gohan fly on his own, when he was eleven?"

„Well,_ let_ isn't quite the word…" Trunks knew he had her there. From what Gohan had told them, when he was their age he'd flown wherever he wanted, mostly because there had been no one in the house who could've stopped him, or flown with him.

„You always say you love both of us the same", Goten said with a pout and crossed his arms.

Chi-chi turned around and crouched to eye level with her son. „Of course I love both of you the same. But that's just why I don't want you making long trips alone, because I worry about you."

„You don't need to worry. I'm a super saiyan."

„I know", she said with a sigh. „But I just can't help worrying, it's what mothers do." She patted his knee. „Tell you what, I'll talk about it again with your father, alright? If he thinks you're ready, I'll allow it."

Goten's face lit up at that statement. „Really? That's so cool."

„Yes, really." Chichi got up and went back to her dishes. „Why don't the two of you go outside? It's a beautiful day."

„Okay", Goten chirped happily and ran out of the kitchen. Trunks followed him.

„You're nicer than me? What kind of argument is that?", Trunks said once they were outside.

„Well…" Goten scratched the back of his. „Sorry. But I do get into a lot less trouble when I'm alone. Mom says you're a bad influence."

Trunks laughed at that. „Yeah, I guess I am. But that's just what you like about me."

„Yeah I guess that's true. Anyway, wanna spar?"

„Sure", Trunks said and jumped into a fighting stance, which Goten matched almost instantly.

Just as they were about to charge at each other, they could hear a crash coming from the kitchen.

„Does your mom usually drop plates?", Trunks asked. As far as he could remember she didn't.

„No…" Goten said, and walked quickly back to the kitchen. „Mom? Is everything okay?"

But she didn't answer him. She was staring transfixedly at the tiny television set in the corner that was currently on a news program. And it was showing what seemed to be a huge explosion.

„Whoa, what happened there?", Trunks asked. An explosion of that size surely would've been accompanied by an increase of ki, which they all would've sensed. Maybe it was archived material?

But then he read the caption underneath and suddenly felt as if he was hot and cold at the same time.

‚Nuclear bomb hits West City'

The news man was droning on something about the city itself. „… Housing several of the worlds largest companies, it's a center of both industrial and political…" Trunks could do nothing but stare at the screen for a moment. There was a map showing exactly where the bomb had been dropped, and it was incredibly close to his home. „… In reaction to the tragedy a statement has been issued…" His mind was struggling to keep up. He didn't know that much about bombs, or really any method of warfare other than ki blasts, but he knew enough to be painfully aware of the fact that this was really bad. „… Declaration of…" Radiation… he slowly remembered that that was one of the things that made nuclear weapons so dangerous. Long term effects and everything. „… Drastic steps may be …"

But there was one thing he knew absolutely nothing about. How dangerous was this to a saiyan? And even if it wasn't, what about his mom? He concentrated his ki sense, looking for his dad's familiar signature, but what he got from the direction of West City was anything but reassuring. The whole area seemed to be awash of ki flickering violently, and he couldn't make out a single life force at all. With a start he realized what he was sensing. People dying.

He barely noticed his hands trembling. He couldn't just stand around and watch the pictures or listen to the things the news man was saying. He turned and started for the door.

„Trunks! What are you doing?", he heard Chi-chi say, and her hand was grabbing his wrist. He could've easily shaken her off, but he was confused enough not to try.

„I gotta…" he said helplessly and looked at her pleadingly. „… Do something…"

„And what exactly are you planning?"

„I need to…" He really wasn't planning anything. His thoughts hadn't quite caught up with his feelings yet. „Go there, and…"

„No you don't!", she said firmly.

„But… I need to do something! Help them!", he yelled.

„There's nothing you can do. I'm sorry, but you won't help anyone if you go there. You'll only be putting yourself in danger."

„But…" he started strengthlessly. He knew she was right, and he really had no idea what he would do if he actually went there, still… how could he sit around? „What about my parents?"

„You won't do them any good if you go there and endanger yourself." She pulled him closer and crouched down to his eye level. „Look, if anyone can get out of there, it's them. And I don't want them showing up here and having to tell them that you left and put yourself in danger, okay?"

„I can't just sit around and wait!", he protested.

„You have to have some faith. Both your parents are really resourceful. I know you want to do something to help them, but right now it's better if you just stay here, okay?"

Trunks sighed, and dropped his arms. She was right, of course. Going to West City wasn't really going to help at all, but to him, inactivity was just one of the worst things. And of course, she was right, if anyone managed to get out of the city in this situation it would be his parents.

If anyone… but what if no one got out?

* * *

He'd done some pretty intense things over the course of his young life, like learning how to fuse with someone and battling majin buu, but it turned out that sitting around and waiting was the most taxing activity he had ever attempted.

The fact that the Son family were all acting weird ever since they found out what exactly he was waiting for, didn't help either. Goten hadn't even known what a nuclear bomb was, until his mother had explained it to him, and listening to her vague describtion hadn't made Trunks feel any better at all.

Gohan and Goku had been out sparring, and when they had come back and heard the news they had both tried sensing Vegeta, and the look on their faces had told him that they had picked up the exact same confusion as he had, and both of them had looked like they were just as anxious as him to do something about the sitation, even though they knew they couldn't.

Trunks had just been sitting in the kitchen all day. All of them had tried cheering him up, or at least encouraging him not to loose hope, but the more they said how sure they were that his parents were going to turn up, the more he thought that it was an empty promise.

They knew just as little as he did, and what he knew told him that it was very unlikely he would ever see his parents alive again.

And even if they made itr out… pretty much everyone else he knew from the City hadn't, that much was sure. Including his grandparents, probably and everyone he knew from school. Most of them were probably reduced to mere shadows on the wall by now, and that thought made him feel sick.

He didn't even quite know what he was waiting for. If they hadn't made it out, he would never hear anything. He would just sit around in this kitchen all day long trying desperately to hold onto a futile hope.

Suddenly his head snapped up. Finally he was sensing something other than the general confusion. A familiar ki. Glancing at the clock above the frigde he realized he hadn't even been waiting that long, but it had felt like an eternity.

He got up and ran outside. He got there just in time to see his dad touch down on the ground, gently setting down his mom. „Mom! Dad!", he yelled happily and ran towards them. His mom looked pretty shaken, but none worse for the wear. He ran over to them and hugged her as tightly as he dared.

„I was so worried, but they said I shouldn't go to West City so I've just been sitting in the kitchen going crazy", he said. His mom hugged him back.

„Well it's good you stayed here", she said looking relieved at seeing him. But that didn't steal away from her otherwise distraught features. Apparently she had been crying.

„Are you okay?", Trunks asked worried.

„I'm just shaken. But Vegeta…" She turned to look at her husband.

„It's nothing", he waved off, but when he turned slightly Trunks could see the burns on his back.

Which definitely didn't look like nothing.

* * *

„Are you crazy? You're not annexing our island!"

The young soldier held his clipboard a little higher as if in an attempt to hide behind it. „I'm sorry, Ma'm but these are our orders. In a war situation…"

„War situation?" Eighten snapped back. „What the hell are you talking about?"

„Well, you know, with the bomb and everything…" he started. He looked as if he was about to piss his pants at her intimidating presence, and that was just the way Eighteen liked humans to act around her.

„What bomb?", she interrupted. She hadn't payed close attention to the news lately, but it wasn't like her accurate memory would ever let her forget anything she heard. There had definitely been no bomb talk when she had last watched TV.

„You know, the nuke that hit West City. There's been a declaration of war and that's why we're here. Because of the strategic location and stuff." He probably hadn't been working in this job for a very long time.

„There's only ocean for miles. This isn't a strategic location at all." At least that was what she assumed. She wasn't quite sure who was waging war against whom, so it was a little hard to tell if she was right. „And even if it where, I don't care, you're not getting this island." She stomped her foot to emphasize her point which probably would have been more impressive if she hadn't been standing on a sandy beach. It was still enough to make him sink even further behind his clipboard, though.

Krillin came out of the house. „What's going on here?", he asked confusedly.

„That cretin wants to have our island and I'm telling him he can't have it", Eighteen explained.

„Well it's just about the war…", the young officer looked at Krillin in the hopes he'd be a little easier to persuade.

„War?", Krillin stared at him incredulously. So at least she hadn't missed anything if he didn't know about it either. Which was of course a ridiculous notion to begin with. She was physically incapable of missing or forgetting anything anyway. „There's no war", he emphasized.

„Well there wasn't this morning, but there is one, now", the soldier claimed. „And that's why you need to move off this island. I'm sorry, sir, but it's just my orders."

„There's plenty of other islands. You don't need to pick the only one that's inhabited", Eighteen remarked. She had just noticed someone else getting off the huge ship the young soldier had come from.

„But it's in my orders", he said, and waved his clipboard. „Apparently this is the island we need, I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is." The little speedboat neared the beach much more quickly than she had expected.

A man got out of it, who wore a much more elaborate uniform than the soldier in front of them was.

„Well, I believe the orders may have been a tad misleading", he said as he climbed onto the beach. The young soldier immediately stood at attention and even went so far as to salute.

„At ease", the man said. „Of course the reason we're here is not about the island itself, Miss… Eighteen."

She stared at the man for a moment. She was sure that she had never seen him before, and she had no idea where some military guy would've picked up her name.

„Who are you?", she demanded with a threatening undertone.

„Who I am is not nearly as interesing as who you are. Finally I get to see Dr. Gero's master piece." He stepped closer, a little too close for her comfort, but she wasn't going to step back and let him know how much what he was saying actually unsettling her.

„How do you know that name?", she asked with venom in her voice.

„That's of little significance." The man chuckled into his luxurious moustache. „But let me clear up the confusion of my young associate. We're actually not here about the island." He waited an instant.

„We're here about you."

„About me?" She really didn't like the sound of that. Couldn't they have come to take Master Roshi away, instead? At least that would've been beneficial.

„Yes. We want you to come with us, in order to study your… unique physique", he said.

„Yeah well good luck with that. There's no way in hell I'm coming with you, and if you know only half as much about me as you seem to, you should be able to tell that you won't be able to force me to, either."

He just chuckled again, and pulled a device out of his pocket. One that she had never expected to see again in her lifetime. Krillin beside her noticeably blanched. „Where did you get that?", he said.

Of course he knew what it was. One of the starting points of their whole relationship had been him smashing a device just like that. She knew that she couldn't waste any time. She moved to grab the device out of his hand, but she was just a split second too late.

The weird military man pressed the big red button and all of her functions ceased.

* * *

Truth to be told, Vegeta felt like shit. But he wasn't about to tell that particular truth.

Kakarot's mate had given him some smelly stuff to put on the burns on his back and offered to help him apply it. He really hadn't been keen on needing help, particularly not hers, but once he had made a rather undignified attempt at doing it himself he had given in.

Which was a good thing, because that way he could zone out and ignore the fact that whatever it was she had given him it burned even worse than his burns did on his own.

Ever since they'd gotten here he'd been getting an ever growing headache, and he felt slightly nauseous. Which was a pity since this way he couldn't even enjoy the fact that unlike his woman, Kakkarot's mate could actually cook.

He was sitting at Gohan's desk while the owner of the room was rummaging through his closet to find something for him to wear. As much as Vegeta liked training in shorts, the fact that this pair of shorts along with his sneakers were now the only items he owned was less than ideal.

„How about this?", Gohan asked, and tossed him a simple dark blue t-shirt. Vegeta pulled it on. It fit a little loosely, which wasn't how he preferred his clothes, but remembering the outfit Bulma had given him the first time he'd had to borrow clothes on this planet, he knew he could do a lot worse.

„It's good", he said noncommittally. Really, he would've prefered to have his saiyan armor right now, or even better, he would've liked to have been wearing that when the bomb had went off. But since that had been in the building that didn't exist anymore, he would just have to make do with what he got.

He leaned back in the chair. „You're more informed about Earth politics, aren't you? Did you know something like this was coming?"

„Not really", Gohan said and sat down on his bed. „We'd been talking about some conflicts about resources and stuff in school, but nothing I heard sounded at all like there was going to be a war. I still can't really believe it. It just seems, so… surreal"

„Oh it's real enough. But the way all of you always go about saving humanity I didn't expect them to turn in on themselves. Guess that was naive." Vegeta looked out the window at the peaceful scenery and couldn't help but wonder whether it would remain like this for long, now that a war had been declared.

„No one could've seen this coming", Gohan said. He didn't seem to like that Vegeta was dismissing believing in something good as naivety.

„The guys who dropped the bomb did." Honestly, Vegeta liked being on the inflicting side of senseless destruction much better. So this must be what the people had experienced when he'd… no, that was just not something he wanted to contemplate right now.

„I just don't see why they did it. All of the talk on the news about war and what not, but they haven't really said anything about the reasons…" Gohan said.

Vegeta ran a hand over his head in the hope that this would help alleviate his headache. When he looked at his hand, though, he noticed something that shouldn't have been there.

Several loose black hairs in between his fingers.

And that just wasn't a good thing.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Let me know what you think about this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Human hair was always growing, in a steady cycle of regeneration. Each hair got replaced after a while, and fell out while a new one started growing in its place. Thus it was nothing extraordinary to loose hairs, and find them in the brush or in the shower or electrostatically sticking to something.

Even if it freaked some people out to find hair they lost, it really was normal to loose up to a hundred hairs per day.

For humans, anyway.

Saiyan hair, on the other hand grew into a specific shape while still in the womb, and aside from growing a bit along with the rest of the body during adolescence remained completely unchanged afterwards. Saiyan hair was very sturdy and resilient, and aside from an unlucky few who had the genetic disposition to loose their hair, (like Nappa had) there were very few things that could cause a saiyan's hair to fall out.

And apparently radiation was one of those.

Gohan was saying something, but Vegeta didn't even listen as he looked at the loose strands of hair in his palm. It weren't that many, not as if he'd pulled out a chunk, or anything, but the fact that they were there at all was worrisome enough.

In addition to his headache and the nausea he was experiencing this didn't look very good at all.

„Do you know if the namek can heal radiation poisoning?", Vegeta asked, and was a little surprised himself at how casual the question sounded.

„What?", Gohan looked up, surprised. Then he noticed the hairs between Vegeta's fingers, which because of how thick and wiry they were were quite noticeable. „Oh." For a moment he went quiet, then he asked: „Are there any other…"

„Headache. Nausea. Do you think the namek can help, or not? Cause I like my hair." Vegeta tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, because already there was a look of fear and concern creeping onto Gohan's features and Vegeta didn't want to encourage that. He didn't want to be pushed into the role of the victim to be pitied. And he was most definitely not going to succumb to a little bit of radiation. He was the Prince of all Saiyans, after all.

„I don't know. But we should try as soon as possible", Gohan said. „I'll go get Dad, so we can get there by Instant Transmission."

„I'm perfectly capable of flying there on my own", Vegeta interjected with a scowl.

„Well, yeah, but do you really want to risk loosing more hair on the way?"

Vegeta grumbled something, which seemed Gohan to interpret as him agreeing to the half-saiyans plan. The thought of himself without hair was scary enough to him to grudgingly accept the third class clown's help. But he didn't have to like it.

Gohan got up and left the room and Vegeta followed him. The thought struck him that both Gohan and Kakkarot had worn saiyan armor while they had been in the hyperbolic time chamber, and didn't wear them now, so he could ask… then he remembered how closely that spandex fit and decided that he didn't want any armor that had been worn before. Especially not by Kakkarot.

When they got the living room where the others were sitting they could hear Bulma screeching something. Upon closer inspection it turned out that she was talking into her cell phone. Apparently her attire had left her with some more useful possessions than him.

„No I won't change my mind! Especially not under these circumstances!", she yelled into the phone. There was a short pause, and then. „I've said it before and I'll say it again: There will not be any military application of any Capsule Corporation technology." She listened for a moment and then yelled: „Because I hold the patents and I say so! Don't bother calling again, I won't change my mind!"

She pushed the button to end the conversation so violently it looked as if she wanted to snap the phone in two.

„That's the third call today! What the hell are they thinking? That losing my hometown would make me think that war is a thing that needs to be supported?" She launched into a rant of what was going to be epic proportions.

While she talked Gohan waved his father over. „Hey Dad, could you come for a second?" Apparently Gohan had noticed that Vegeta wouldn't want to let to many people know about his condition, and the prince was glad about that. With any luck the little green guy would simply solve the problem and they would never have to think about it again.

„What's up?", Goku asked, when he came over to Gohan and Vegeta standing in the hallway mostly out of sight from the others.

„Can you IT us to the Lookout?", Gohan asked.

„Yeah sure. But why?", Goku wanted to know.

„Just do it", Vegeta said with his arms crossed. He didn't know why Gohan wanted to accompany them, since strictly speaking there was no reason for him to be there, but he didn't care all that much.

„Alright", Goku said with a shrug. „Hold on to me."

Both Vegeta and Gohan grabbed his shoulders while Goku concentrated and put two fingers to his forehead. And instant later they disappeared.

* * *

Dende was pacing the Lookout restlessly, so that Mr. Popo could barely keep up with him, but why the good-natured gardener even bothered to try was beyond him.

He was probably the least successful guardian in the universe but he didn't even know what he had done wrong. But it must've been something major if the people of the planet started throwing bombs at each other.

There wasn't much one could do from the Lookout but observe, and the thing they had observed today would probably haunt his dreams as long as he lived. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen any destruction before, he had lost the entire planet before, after all, but the worst thing wasn't how many people had died.

It was the suffering of those who survived. The greater West City area was covered in Fallout now, radiation was killing all the plants and all the water had evaporated, leaving the survivors desperate enough to drink the rainwater that was coming down from the huge black cloud that covered the city. Dende wasn't sure if they knew, but drinking that water would probably kill them, be it of too much radiation in a few weeks or of cancer in the years to come.

Mr. Popo had been talking to him, but Dende had barely been listening.

„Dende?", he asked now, and the young guardian finally stopped his pacing. „You can't blame yourself for this."

„How could I not? I'm earth's guardian! This shouldn't have happened!"

„No, it shouldn't", Mr. Popo agreed, „but it's not your fault. You need to stop blaming yourself."

„Well I must've done something wrong! This wouldn't have happened to Kami", Dende yelled. Really, Mr. Popo didn't deserve to be yelled at, but the young namek was in too much emotional turmoil to even feel sorry.

„It could, and it did", a scruff voice coming from the main building said. Dende turned around and saw Piccolo stepping out of the shadows.

„What?"

„There have been horrible wars on this planet while Kami was its guardian. It doesn't matter how well you do as a guardian, some things you just can't prevent", Piccolo explained.

„But… there's gotta be something I can do", Dende said helplessly. He held onto his staff as tightly as he could, because he feared he might collapse from the weight on his shoulders.

„There isn't. A guardian can do everything to protect the people of his planet, but there is one thing you can't have any control over", Piccolo said calmly.

„What thing?"

„Their free will. There are many threats we can save humans from, but we can't save them from themselves. Trust me, Kami made some bad experiences with that, too."

„So I'm just supposed to sit here and watch?"

„I know it sounds bad, but right now there isn't much else you can do."

Dende ran his free hand over his head and almost bent one of his antennae. He was just gonna reply, when suddenly three familiar figures showed up out of thin air, Goku, Gohan and Vegeta.

„Hi Dende", Goku said in a friendly tone, and greeted Mr. Popo and Piccolo as well. Dende's attention was caught by Vegeta, however, who was walking toward him quickly. Something about the saiyan prince seemed to be a little off, but Dende couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Of course Vegeta wasn't one to beat around the bush. „Can you heal radiation poisoning?", he asked.

„Radiation poisoning?" Dende was taken aback for a moment. But then he realized that Vegeta had been living in West City. „I… I don't know. But I can try", the guardian replied honestly. He'd never been faced with that question before, and he wasn't sure if his healing powers would help or not.

„Then try", Vegeta said, and Dende stepped closer to him. Upon closer inspection he realized what had put him off about the saiyan's appearance. His normally tan skin had a slight greenish tinge to it, and he seemed to be a little paler than usual. And even though from a fashion standpoint Dende believed a green skintone to be quite nice, he knew that it wasn't a good sign when it came to humans or saiyans.

He put his hands forward and concentrated as a yellow glow started to surround him and Vegeta. He really didn't know if he could do anything about the radiation, but then again, why not? He could heal injuries, so why not get rid of a bit of radiation?

When he was done he put his hands down. Whether or not it had helped he wasn't sure, but this was all he could do.

„Did it help?", Gohan asked Vegeta.

Vegeta touched his back lightly. „Burns are gone", he reported. „Headache and nausea are still there, though." He didn't look any better, either.

„Well, maybe it just takes a while for the symptoms to go away", Goku suggested, optimistic as ever. But Dende knew right away that his ministrations hadn't made any real difference, and from the look Piccolo passed Vegeta, he knew his mentor didn't share Goku's optimism, either.

„Maybe", Gohan said half-heartedly.

„Well, I guess we better get back home, in case anyone wonders where we are", Goku said, and motioned for Vegeta and Gohan to get a hold of him. They both did. „Thanks, anyway. Bye!" Goku said cheerfully and waved as they wavered out of sight.

For a moment no one on the Lookout said anything. „How bad is it?", Piccolo asked.

„I can't really tell. Only thing I do know is that what I did didn't help at all", Dende replied. And that weighed almost as heavy on him as the whole other situation. The only people who really asked for his direct help, and he couldn't even do anything for them.

He really did suck as a guardian.

* * *

A short system diagnostic… all systems working within normal parameters. Sensory input was activated.

And an instant later android Eighteen returned to consciousness. From what her tactile sensors were telling her, she was lying on a cold floor, possibly metal, that was very smooth. She heard some voices talking, and decided to keep her eyes closed for the moment. Gathering information while her opponents thought she was still out could prove beneficial later.

„… can of course only serve as an inspiration. Trying to achieve the same level of detail would simply be ludicrous", a female voice stated.

„And why is that?", a much deeper, male voice asked. A short check against her memory banks revealed that she had heard the voice before. It was the man with the elaborate uniform and the mustache who had talked to her on the beach. Who had the controller to shut her off.

„There is so much detail to the construction, probably the programming as well. A simulation this good of human behavior is simply unprecedented. Most of the parts are completely costum made, as far as we can tell. Also, the amount of physical power is almost obscene. Trying to copy this design would probably cost at least ten million zeni. Possibly much more, depending on how much effort is spent on the programming." The woman explained.

„Seems like a lot for a sex bot."

At that, Eighteen's eyes snapped open._ Sex bot? _She now saw that she was in something resembling a prison cell, except that everything seemed to be made of metal. There was a slight humming sound, so she guessed that wherever she was was probably something that was capable of moving. The most logical conclusion was that she was now on the ship that mustache man had come from.

„It's not a sex bot, sir. It's a weapon", the woman explained calmly. She had dark hair and wore a white lab coat. She didn't seem to be surprised at all, when Eighteen sat up and glared at both of them, and just kept reading from her clipboard.

„Well, from what I read on the specifications you gave me, it would probably be good for both", the man said.

„I have to admit, the design is quite puzzling. The device is capable of simulating human behavior and looks extremely well, to a point where it's absurd." The woman pointed at Eighteen's face with her pen. „Look! It blinks! There's absolutely no good reason for the device to do that, except to look more human."

Eighteen stood up and crossed her arms. „‚The device'?", she quoted. „I do have a gender and a name, _organism!_" To emphasize her point she blinked, just because it seemed to freak the woman out a little.

„Also, this personality? From what I hear it was created for a purely destructive goal. Why would anyone choose to waste a frankly exorbitant amount of processing power on a function that's completely irrelevant to her main objective?" The scientist pushed her glasses up.

„Maybe Doctor Gero was lonely", the man with the mustache suggested. „Even though there ware rumors that giving them a personality was ultimately the cause of his demise. But it's certainly impressive that it's even possible to create something as elaborate as this? Did you know that it was even possible to simulate a personality like this before you saw this android?"

„From a purely scientific standpoint, yes, it is impressive", the woman admitted. „But for our purposes and from an economic viewpoint it really is useless."

„What purposes?", Eighteen demanded. She stepped closer to the bars which separated her from her captors. The bars didn't look like they were made from particularly sturdy material. She could probably bend… as her hand moved closer to the bar, she was suddenly hit with an electrical discharge. She quickly pulled her arm back.

„It experiences pain. That's just weird. Why would he construct it with specific weaknesses?"

„Pain isn't pointless", the man with the mustache pointed out. „It's really a defense mechanism to let the body know to stop activities that would otherwise prove harmful. It really leads the device to protect itself and its functions."

„Well our models probably won't have that. It'd be difficult to implement and they're disposable anyway."

Eighteen was getting tired of being ignored and analyzed. „Who the hell are you? And where's my family?", she shouted at them.

„Well, you could say that we're admirers of your creators work", the man said.

„How do you even know Dr. Gero?", Eighteen demanded.

„Well, I didn't know him particularly well. I just met him at a few conferences. I have to say, I never really knew what to make of the man, but his ideas were undoubtedly brilliant. I think his creations speak for themselves, really. From what I hear, both he and his army don't exist anymore, but that doesn't mean his ideas can't live on. An army reinforced by androids with superhuman strength might just be the thing that's going to decide the outcome of this war."

„And that's why I'm here? Because you can't build any decent androids on your own and want to see what Dr. Gero did? Well I got news for you: whatever cheap knockoff you do build, there are enough warriors on this planet who can easily dispatch of it."

„Let that be our worry, dear", the man said with a chuckle. „If you're right then we'll just have to make sure those warriors and our ‚knockoffs' don't meet."

„Or we could just reprogram this one", the woman said.

„No you can't. And whatever you want to do with me don't bother. I won't cooperate."

„Oh I don't see how you have any choice in the matter", the man with the mustache said, and took the controller out of his pocket. „We have several of those."

„Where is my family?", she asked again.

„Don't know. Probably still on this island of theirs. By the way, I've been meaning to ask, who was the old guy?"

„That's none of your business. What did you do with them?" Eighteen couldn't imagine that Krillin would've just let them take her.

„Oh nothing, really. Your husband actually wanted to kill me, but you'd be surprised at how complacent a man can get when you have someone pointing a gun at their child's head and threatening to wipe all the data off his wife's memory logs with an electromagnetic pulse. Though I imagine that last one doesn't work on most husbands." At Eighteen's glare, he added. „Don't worry, no one on the island was harmed."

So they weren't on the ship. Which meant that there was no harm in sinking it. She knew she had to strike fast, faster than the guy could press the button. Luckily her reflexes were far superior to those of any human. She whipped her hand back, palm pointing at the wall behind her, and she blasted it away. She turned to leave, but to her dismay saw that there wasn't freedom waiting for her on the other side of the wall. In fact she'd just blown a hole into another cell that was identical to the one she was in. She really didn't know where the way out was.

But before she could even attempt an analysis of her new situation, she heard a faint click, and all of her processes were stopped.

7777777777777777777

Bulma had ranted for a while about the people that had been calling her - greedy fucks who wanted to make money from people's misery. Usually ranting made her feel better, but this time it didn't. These people's attitude made her shake with anger and after the day she'd had she felt drained.

After they had arrived at Goku's it had taken her a while to fully understand how lucky she'd been. Had the Gravity Room not acted funky Vegeta wouldn't have been in the same room with her and if he hadn't been, all of his saiyan reflexes wouldn't have been enough to get her out of there. But her prince had saved her, and Trunks was okay, too. She really was incredibly lucky. That near to the explosion she'd have had no chance at all. None of her neighbors had.

Still, it was hard to wrap her head around the fact that this had happened at all. She couldn't even allow herself to think about her mother and her father, because every time she did she started crying.

Those assholes who kept calling her reminded her of them, though. Because one of the things her father had always stood for was restricting the use of capsule technology to civilian applications. And that made her even more determined to stand by her opinion.

She looked up and saw Vegeta stand in the doorway of the small living room. He caught her look and made a small gesture with his head, signaling for her to come over. She hadn't really talked to him since they'd arrived here, but he'd also left a little while ago, for a longer time than she expected he'd needed to pick out the blue t-shirt he was wearing now.

She got up from the couch and followed Vegeta, who led her outside.

„Where've you been?", she asked, once they were outside. It was so calm and nice out here that it was hard to believe something like what they had been witnessing that day could've happened on this planet. He didn't answer her, and just looked at her seriously. The sun was slowly setting and basking everything in a pleasant orange light, but something about her mate didn't look quite right to her.

„Do you have any radiation symptoms? Nausea? Headache?" He looked at her so intently that she felt as if he was trying to stare into her very soul.

„No", she said. Then a thought struck her. One that she didn't like at all. „Do you?"

„Are you sure? What about the baby? Anything unusual?"

„Not that I know", she answered. „You didn't answer my question, though. Do you feel sick?"

He hesitated for a moment, which wasn't something you could see the saiyan prince do often. „Slightly", he admitted.

„How ‚slightly'?", she asked in a serious tone.

„It's nothing to worry about", he said, but something about the look on his face made her suspect that he wasn't being quite honest.

„Don't bullshit me Vegeta", she said. „How, exactly, do you feel?"

„Nauseous. With a headache. And…" Again he hesitated.

„What else?", she asked firmly. She knew he didn't like to admit weakness, particularly not to her, but she did need to know, if something was wrong with him. She was already starting to worry more than slightly.

He ran a hand over his head and then showed her the hand. Her eyes went wide when she saw several seperate hairs in between his fingers. She knew from experience that it was almost impossible to pull any of his hairs out, because in the throes of their love making she had held on to his mane more than once. There shouldn't be any that fell out that easily.

She felt incredibly shallow when she realized that the first thing on her mind was how much she didn't want her husband to go bald. But the thought that that could very well be the best case scenario downright frightened her.

„How… how bad is that? For a saiyan, I mean? There's gotta be some differences to humans…", she managed to choke out.

„I have no idea", he admitted. „There never were any nuclear devices on our planet, so there wasn't too much data on what effect radiation has on saiyans", he explained.

A race as militant as the saiyans didn't have nuclear weapons? That sounded odd to her. „Really? Why not?"

„Saiyan weapons technology never was particularly advanced. Saiyan engineers never really saw the point trying to develop weapons when most members of the general populace could turn planets into rubble at a full moon. They were more focused on other things, like transportation and healing", he explained.

„Oh. Well that makes sense", Bulma said. „Maybe… maybe if you went to Dende's, he could help, or maybe a senzu bean…?" she suggested.

„That's were I was. Didn't help. Except for the burns." He said that just a little too casually for Bulma's taste.

„Crap…" was all she could think of saying to that. She felt a cold fear creeping into her stomach.

„Don't look at me like that", he said, suddenly.

She knew that her worry must've been evident in her face, and if there was one thing Vegeta hated it was being pitied. But she couldn't do anything about it. The thought of surviving a nuclear attack only to watch her husband who had saved her from it get sick and possibly… it was just too much for her.

„What's more important, if I got irradiated, there's a chance you could've, too. Which is why I'm asking, are you sure that you're okay?"

She sighed and noticed her voice was wavering a little, when she answered. „Really, I… I just don't know. I feel fine, but I don't know how to tell if the baby's okay. It's still so early, I don't have any way of knowing much about the baby. I don't feel sick, but the radiation, and the baby… there's so many things that could go wrong, and I don't know." She had spent all her time, ever since the explosion, trying to push these thoughts away, actively forbidding herself from thinking about all the ways this could impact their unborn child. Her baby could be dead, or its growth could be impaired, or some of it's cells could've been damaged… there where so many ways things could go wrong that just thinking about them made her shake with fear. She felt her eyes water, as she admitted, „I'm scared."

Vegeta was just about to reply something, when he suddenly turned around. Bulma turned, too, and saw someone landing not far from them. When she looked closer, she realized that it was Krillin, holding Marron.

„Krillin. What are you doing here?", she asked, confused.

„I need a babysitter", he announced. Just then she noticed the dark look on his face.

„And some help sinking a warship that can take a fully powered destructo disk."

* * *

A/N: Well, I'm really spamming you with this story these last few day. Hope you're not annoyed.

Let me know what you think about the story and the new chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

How had they ever gotten around before Goku had learned Instant Transmission?

Even though Krillin had been around all that time and knew well they could do well without it, he sometimes had a hard time imagining how things would look if his best friend weren't an interdimensional taxi. During the flight from his island to Mount Pazou he had been painfully aware of all the precious seconds it had stolen from him.

He, Goku and Gohan had just arrived back on Kame island, which had been completely deserted just a few moments ago.

„So, um… where is that ship?", Goku asked warily. Krillin hadn't taken the time to explain anything to the others and instead insisted to be taken back to the island. He was really grateful his friends had complied without stalling.

„It can't be far. It's only been an hour, maybe an hour and a half, it's gotta be around here somewhere", Krillin said and took to the air to get a better view of the area. Both of his companions followed him.

What they saw wasn't exactly what Krillin had been hoping for, but it didn't surprise him. There were several military vessels around there now, and Krillin knew it had been a wise decision to leave the island. He just hoped that Master Roshi and the Turtle would be okay on the boat they had taken back to the mainland.

„And… which ship, exactly, do you want to sink? And why?", Gohan asked. Both saiyans seemed slightly apprehensive about Krillin's mood, and he knew they had every reason to be. His usual cheerful self had yet to make an appearance that evening. And it probably wouldn't.

„Because they took Eighteen, and I want to get her back", he explained. „But the ship's not here" He spun around. He didn't know where the ship had been heading. It couldn't be that far, but where?

„They took Eighteen? What happened?", Goku asked worriedly.

„I'll explain later, I just need to find that ship, first." If only his wife had a ki he could sense. That would make everything to much easier.

„What's it look like?", Gohan asked.

„Kind of like those", Krillin said and gestured towards the other two ships that were moving along the sea lazily. „But bigger. Huge."

„Maybe we should seperate, all go in a different direction and whoever finds it powers up to alert the others", The younger saiyan suggested.

„Yeah", Krillin agreed and picked a direction to fly in without even waiting for the other two. He felt as if he couldn't stop moving. He was afraid that the dread that had been filling the back of his mind would consume him if he did. He much preferred doing everything in his power to solve the problem to dwelling on his fears.

The ship really hadn't gone that far, and he was glad to be the one to find it. He raised his ki to signal the others, but found it hard to concentrate on the act. But apparently it had been enough, because barely a minute later both saiyans were at his side again.

„So that's the ship, huh?", Gohan said. Krillin could tell that Gohan was impressed by the size of it, even though he'd already been told about that. Even from where they were, high up in the sky it still looked gigantic and imposing. Krillin had been living in this part of the ocean for a really long time and he had seen his share of big ships, but this one really took the cake. But from what he sensed there were surprisingly few people on there. Only a handful of ki signatures.

Krillin nodded at Gohan's question.

„And… you want to sink it?", Goku looked at him hesitantly. „I mean, there's people on there…"

What Krillin had thought initially when he had tried to sink it before was that Eighteen didn't need to breathe, and he honestly didn't care about the bastards who had taken her. He sighed. „No… you're right, sinking it's probably not the best thing to do. But I do need to get inside, and that's what I need your help for." No matter what he thought about these people, doing something that would very likely kill them was of course not the right thing to do, and it was probably good that he had Goku with him to remind Krillin of that. Besides, if he sunk the ship while Eighteen was deactivated, she wouldn't be able to swim back to the surface and that would defeat the whole purpose.

Goku seemed relieved that Krillin agreed. „Well, getting in's probably not difficult." The saiyan powered up a moderate ki blast and aimed it at the top of the ship in an area where he couldn't sense any of the kis. He shot, and when the explosion cleared looked dumbfunded to see the ship practically undamaged.

„See?", Krillin said. „That's exactly what I had trouble with."

„But… how does that work? It's just a boat!" Goku seemed very confused.

„I don't know, all I do know is that I want it to stop working", Krillin emphasized.

„Well I guess we need some bigger guns, then", Goku said, and cupped his hands at the side of his body. „Ka… me… ha… me… HA!", he yelled, and a blinding flash of light shot at the top of the ship. When the smoke cleared they could see that this time he'd been successful in blowing a hole into the ship's hull. But considering the power of the blast that had hit it that hole was much smaller than it had any right to be.

Still, it was a hole, and Krillin didn't waste any time entering, his two companions following closely. They ended up in a small corridor that was slightly melted at the edges of the hole, but not nearly as melted as any of them would've expected.

„Am I slacking off, or is this ship just built incredibly well?", Goku asked, as he inspected the damage. He really seemed to be in awe. Funny how he didn't care all too much for any technology, but finding something very sturdy filled him with fascination.

Krillin on the other hand was slightly relieved that it had taken so much of the saiyan's power for this little impact, because it meant it wasn't really the small monk's fault that his earlier attempt at breaching the hull had been so inconsequential.

But the ship itself really wasn't what he was interested in at all. He closed his eyes to concentrate on the ki signatures on the ship. With people who weren't martial artists it was hard sometimes to tell their ki's apart, since most of them were pretty equal in strength, but Krillin had carefully memorized the signature of the man with the mustache and the soldier that had been with them, so he could pick them out now that he was close enough. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it, when he realized that only the soldier was still on the ship, but the man with the mustache wasn't. It had been quite clear which of them had been in charge, and if he had already left the ship it was possible that he had taken the beautiful android with him.

Only one way to find out… Krillin stalked off in the direction of the soldier he had encountered before.

It took him almost ten minutes to find the guy, because even though he wasn't that far away from where they had entered, the complex layout of hatches and corridors within the ship made it hard to locate him. When he came to another door that was slightly ajar, though, he heard a voice and immediately knew it was the right one.

„I'm telling you, that must've been this guy from the island!", a frantic man shouted inside. „Seriously, when we were there he shouted ‚Deadly Frisbee' or something and threw this weird kind of light at the ship. If anyone manages to breach the hull it must've been with something like that."

Krillin pushed the door open. Apparently they were in some sort of control room, since there were computer panels at all the walls. As they noticed the door opening, everyone present turned around, and the man that had been standing in the middle of the room went pale as he recognized the intruder.

Without hesitation he stepped up to the young soldier, and had to admit in the back of his mind that he was a little happy to see the man who was almost two heads taller than himself cower in fear.

„Where is she?", he snarled, and was a little surprised at the venom in his own voice. He wasn't sure he'd sounded this hostile even during their fight with Vegeta when he'd first arrived on Earth. Having his family threatened brought out a whole new layer of resentment for these people that he couldn't even dreamt about before. Not that he would've ever dreamt about hating someone.

„I… I don't know!", the man yelped helplessly.

„Bullshit", Krillin said, and grabbed the soldier by his collar to yank him down to his eye level.

„Really! The… the general left with her and his science team as soon as we had departed from the island. I don't know where they went, I swear!", he stuttered.

„Anyone else here know where they went?", Krillin asked and looked at the others on the bridge one by one. Most of them didn't seem to understand quite why their colleague was so terrified, but they look on the noseless man's face made it very clear that he wasn't someone to be messed with right now, no matter how short he was.

„Uh… no, sir", someone seated at a control station said. „They used a special aircraft that I've never seen before. It vanished from our radar before we could even tell which direction it was heading. You… you can check the logs if you want to."

„And they didn't tell you where they were going? Or why they kidnapped my wife?", Krillin snapped.

„No sir. It was something high level, top secret. We don't even know why they needed a ship as heavily reinforced as ours to just visit an island. We only got orders, we don't know about the reasons", the same person said.

„I… think they're telling the truth", Goku said uneasily.

Even though Krillin wanted to deny it, wanted to believe they were lying, and not accept that his only clue was a dead end, he instinctively knew Goku was right.

„If you've got any more information, you'd better tell me right now", Krillin said threateningly to the man whose collar he was still holding in a tight grip.

„I only know the orders, I'm sorry", the man said and waved his hands apologetically. There was nothing more to be gained from staying here, so Krillin reluctantly let go. Then the image of that man threatening his daughter flashed through his mind, and he curled his fingers into a fist and hit the man squarely in the jaw, hoping it would make him feel better.

It didn't; he had to restrain his power to not risk any long term damage to the soldier, and seeing the guy knocked out cold left him with a hollow feeling of non-victory. And that could do nothing about the sinking despair inside of him that came from knowing that he had failed his wife.

* * *

Half an hour later in the Son's living room he was just in the middle of telling his friends about what had happened and had yet to touch the cup of tea that was standing before him. The kids were off in Goten's room, and Krillin had no idea where Vegeta was, but the rest of the people in the house were listening intently to what he had to say.

„And then the guy threatened to have this EMP wipe out all of Eighteen's memories." He sighed. „Maybe he was bluffing, I don't know that much about the technical stuff, but he did have the remote, and I just didn't think I could risk it… that was probably stupid of me, but…" He ran his fingers through his hair. „There was a gun pointed at my daughters head. It just… messes you up, you know? I mean, she doesn't have superpowers, she's just a sweet little girl…"

Just thinking about the feeling he'd had when he'd seen the gun made his hands shake. Badly.

„Even if they do have superpowers it doesn't make it any better seeing them threatened", Chichi said sympathetically and patted his arm. He saw Bulma nodding, and was grateful to realize that his reaction hadn't been that stupid after all.

„You didn't do anything wrong, Krillin", Goku agreed.

„Can't help feeling like I did", the small monk said with a bitter tone to his voice.

„We'll find her", Goku said with that trademark optimism of his.

„I sure hope you're right. But what if they do something to her? You know, mess with her programming or something?"

„Whatever they do, I'm sure Bulma can find a way to fix it", Goku emphasized. Bulma herself didn't look quite as sure, but she nodded in agreement anyway. For a moment everyone was silent.

„Well, I'm gonna go set up the beds for everyone", Chichi announced and stood up. „If there's anything you or Marron need, just tell me, okay?"

„I will, thanks", Krillin said. It just occured to him that they were a lot of people for the Son family's small house, but it seemed as if Chichi had everything under control. She left to prepare something.

„So…", Krillin started after a while. „Is it true what they said about the bomb? On West City?"

„Yep", Bulma said, looking at her hands. „Vegeta was just talking to me about something funky the GR did, when suddenly he grabbed me and started flying, an instant later…" she sighed. „I just thank my lucky stars that he's so good at breaking the damn thing. If he'd been in any other room at that moment, I'd be… poof!" She had a forlorn look on her face, and said the ‚poof' quietly. Something about the way she said it sent a shiver down Krillin's spine. He had his own experiences with going ‚poof' and that just made the thought all the more unsettling. He could tell from the way Gohan and Goku looked that it made them uncomfortable as well.

„We have to do something about this", Goku said. „This whole thing is just…"

„And what can we do? That's not exactly what we're specialized in", Bulma said.

„Well… I don't know. The Dragonballs, maybe?"

„Somehow I have a feeling a wish from a magical dragon isn't simply gonna fix this", Bulma announced.

„We could wish West City back to the way it was", Goku suggested.

„Sure, but it's not much use trying to fix the damage when people are still set on destruction. Besides, with the Boo thing everyone died once."

„Okay, so maybe the Dragonballs aren't the best solution right now, but maybe they're gonna be useful later", Gohan conceded. „Do you have the radar?"

Bulma shook her head. „That was at home."

„Can you build a new one?"

„Yeah, I think so, but I don't know how quickly. I don't have the parts here, and it's been a really long time since I built it, I don't know all the schematics that well anymore."

„Doesn't Capsule Corp have backups?", Gohan wanted to know.

„Sure, for all of our technology, but I never uploaded the dragon radar to the servers, because I was afraid someone might gain access and I didn't want to risk it. Just imagine if the people who threw the bomb or these jackasses that have been calling me all day could use the dragon balls. The only plan I ever had for the radar was in a tiny pink notebook I kept as a teenager." She didn't need to say it out loud for everyone to know what had happened to that particular book now.

„But, you're a genius and everything, right?", Goku asked hopefully.

„Yeah", she said with a small smile. „I can build a new one, I'm just taking it might take a while."

„So, in the meantime, what do we do?", Goku wanted to know. „I mean if anyone can fix this mess, it should be us, right?"

„I'm not so sure about that", Krillin said warily. „This isn't some bad guy attacking the world, these are regular people. We can't just hit them with a couple of ki blasts."

„I guess there's not much we can do right now", Gohan agreed. „We need to know more about this whole conflict to figure out how we can help. What the world really needs right now is not fighting, it's dimplomacy."

„But… we always save the world. I don't think I can just sit around and wait", Goku said helplessly. The others in the room looked at each other. They couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

For the first time it looked as if the world was falling apart around them and they might not have the power to save it.

* * *

When Gohan got up in the morning, Vegeta was already outside, doing some basic training exercises. The older warrior looked a lot better than he had the day before, and Gohan was allowing himself a glimpse of hope that maybe goign to Dende's had helped after all, or maybe saiyans were just resilient enough for the radiation not to be that big a problem.

When he tried to go to the bathroom he'd found Krillin there, trying to convince Marron to use the toilet, who apparently didn't like using the potty anywhere else but at home, and on his way into the kitchen he'd almost tripped over the two other demi-saiyans who were playing hide and seek or maybe tag. His mom was standing at the stove and frying bacon, while Goku and Bulma were sitting at the table waiting for the food to be ready.

„Chichi, really, I could help you. You don't need to do the cooking for all of us on your own", Bulma insisted as Gohan entered, and waved good morning.

„No, I'm fine doing this, don't worry", Chichi said cheerily.

„You just don't want me to mess up your cooking, right?", said Bulma.

„Well, Is wasn't going to say it quite that directly…", Chichi replied.

Goku laughed and Bulma shot a glare at him. „Sorry, B, but you gotta admit, she has a point there."

Bulma sighed. „Well, I was just trying to be helpful." When she saw Gohan she said, „Good morning! There's a letter for you"

She pointed to a white envelope, which Gohan eyed curiously. They didn't get mail all too often, and mostly it was bills, and when it was directed at him usually something about school. He hadn't really expected to get any letters during summer break.

He tore open the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper. He had to look at the headline twice, before he could even start to comprehend its meaning.

„What the…" he whispered as he read the text.

„Something wrong?", someone asked, but Gohan was so caught in the contents of the letter that he wasn't even quite sure who it had been.

„This can't be right…" he said. His thoughts started spinning. Obviously there was no way he would… but how to get out of it? „That's just…"

He looked up confused when the letter was snatched from his hands. His mother visibly paled when she read the first two words.

„Draft notice?" she blinked a few times. „They want you to be a soldier?"

„Seriously?", Bulma asked. „They just started a war yesterday and they're already sending out letters like that? What the hell is up with that? Is that even legal? And shouldn't they have enough people, anyway?"

„Well I don't care, there's no way I'm joining the army", Gohan declared. He really was a pacifist at heart and while he did fight when it was necessary, regular people shooting at each other was not something he deemed necessary and he wanted no part in it. Besides, he wasn't quite sure which side was trying to recruit him there, and there was a fifty-fifty chance that these were the people who were responsible for what had happened to West City. Assuming there only were two sides, to this conflict. The general confusion all over the news channels hadn't really given him any insight into the situation.

„So, can you just tell these people no?", his father asked. There was a slight edge of worry in his voice.

„I don't think it's quite that easy, I don't really know. But the date I'm supposed to show up is almost a month from now. We just have to make sure that by that time it's become redundant", Gohan said with determination.

„Are you sure we can do that?"

„No. But I do have an idea for that." With that Gohan left the kitchen and took to the skies.

* * *

For as long as he could remember Gohan had been used to flying all over this pretty planet, enjoying the views and generally being happy about being there. The distances between places barely meant anything to him. So the idea of having lines drawn across it seemed ludicrous.

And the idea that he was supposed to fall on one side of those lines and fight the people on the others side really pissed the young saiyan off. There was no way anyone could force him to join if he didn't want to of course, but the fact that they were trying seemed offensive enough to him.

As he flew across the planet to meet the one person he knew who might have enough pull to make a difference, he noticed many subtle differences that made him all too aware of the fact that this whole situation was actually real.

The oceans suddenly seemed filled with military vessels, and he could see tanks and other vehicles traverse otherwise peaceful terrain. At least no one had retaliated with another nuke just yet, but the tension was almost visible. People were leaving the cities, afraid that their home might soon share the fate of West City.

He wasn't quite sure if the person he was seeking out could actually help, but it was worth a try. From afar he could already see the customary crowd of reporters surrounding the mansion.

Gohan touched down a bit away from the crowd. He didn't want to startle anyone. Slowly, he made his way through the reporters, until he had a clear view of the person he was looking for.

Words couldn't describe the disappointment he felt at what he saw.

There he was, Hercule Satan in all of his glory, spouting hot air as usual.

Except for the fact that he'd traded in his usual maroon colored gi for a green and khaki spotted camouflage one. And the hot air he was spouting for once wasn't about himself and all of the ways he was in love with his own voice but instead about war, glory, and serving your country.

„Remember soldiers, when you go out there, every one of you makes a difference! You're putting your lives on the line for your loved ones, your country and the things you believe in. That takes real courage, and I, the World Martial Arts Champion salute you for your bravery." His words were accompanied by the appropriate gesture, and the crowd went wild cheering. Some camera crews seemed to have a hard time keeping their cameras steady through their excitement.

Gohan noticed just now, that the reporters were actually not that many, but instead most members of the huge crowd were soldiers all decked out in their best formal uniforms.

„Go out there, and win!" Satans voice roared through the speakers to drown out the noise the crowd was making, and that command made everyone there even more excited than before. Everyone except for Gohan. When the champ left the stage and the soldiers followed their respective leaders, the young Z-fighter followed Hercule into his home.

„Can I talk to you for a moment?", he asked in a gruff tone.

„There's no exclusive interviews right now, you'll have to - ", Satan started as he was turning around. „Oh, it's you. Sure, what do you want to talk about." A conspirative grin found its way onto Hercule's features. „Did you see my speech? That was awesome, huh? Sometimes I impress even myself."

„I wasn't that taken with it", Gohan said through gritted teeth. Only then did Mr. Satan notice the dark look on the teenagers features.

„What's wrong?", he asked.

„What the hell do you think you're doing, giving speeches like this? You do know that you're sending those guys out to be killed, don't you? You should be using your influence to stop this war, rather than making it all worse!", Gohan yelled.

„I'm not making it worse", Hercule said, and looked a little miffed. „I'm giving these people motivation and support. That's important, you know."

„No it isn't. There shouldn't be a war. Do you have any idea how many people are going to die because of this? Millions already have. I thought saving humanity was something you had an interest in, too", Gohan said accusingly.

„I do care about people. That's why I'm doing this, to make them feel better."

„You know, I think they'd feel even better if they didn't have to go out to die!"

„And I think you shouldn't stick your nose into my business."

„Well, it looks like I have to, so you stop with this nonsense", Gohan said and pointed to the champs' attire.

„That's what you think. I happen to think it's important."

„It's not. It's wrong. You're encouraging these people to go to war, when you're one of the few people popular enough all over the planet for people to really listen to you if you told them to stop."

Hercule looked at Gohan strangely for a moment, and then barked out a laugh that didn't sound all that cheerful. „You know, you seem so much like an adult that it's hard to believe you'd be so naive. You really think I could stop this war?"

„Well… out of anyone I know…" Suddenly Gohan wasn't all that certain about his coming here anymore.

„When it all comes down to it, I'm just a guy who smashes bricks for a living, kid. There may be a lot of people who like me, but you seriously think I have any control over the higher ups with their twitchy trigger fingers? Nowadays a war is not about the people on either side hating each other and wanting each other dead. Whether or not I tell everybody they should or shouldn't fight doesn't make any difference at all, because it's not like regular people get any choice when some jackass decides to drop a nuke. Besides, do you really think a guy who's most famous for fighting is gonna sound very credible telling everybody fighting is bad?"

„But even if you don't have the power to stop this, it doesn't mean you have to encourage the war!", Gohan yelled. „You can still make a stand against it, even if it doesn't change things."

„And what would be the point of that?"

„Integrity, that's what!" Gohan looked at Mr. Satan with venom in his eyes. „Oh right. My bad. Forgot who I was talking to there, for a second."

The gorilla like man flushed a deep crimson at the insinuation. „So I'm not making the war go away. At least I'm giving these people a bit of hope and a sense of purpose. That's within my powers, and I think that's the right thing to do. Excuse me, Mr. High-and-Mighty for not magically making all the problems disappear. Now get out of my house."

Gohan turned to comply with Mr. Satan's request, mainly because he was afraid that he'd go Super Saiyan 2 if he listened to any more of Mr. Satan's blubbering, and Videl would probably get mad if he reduced her Dad to a smear on the wall.

„Videl's gonna be ashamed of you, once she finds out what you're doing. But what else is new?"

„Out!"

* * *

Eighteen's mind consisted of two distinct layers. There was the baseline that was the pure computer level, constantly calculating, storing data, and analyzing situations. Above that was what she considered to be her conciousness, where her thinking happened, and her emotions lived. That layer was the one that made all the decisions, and it was infinitely more complex in its programming and structure than the one below it, it was where her personality lived and also controlled the other layer to expand its horizon in order to be able to learn. It was the difference between a household appliance, and sentience, the very essence of who she was, no matter how much influence her calculations and analyzations had over her actions.

She had never quite believed to be that much of a divide between the two layers, had assumed they flowed into each other without clear borders, and her idea of the distinction where one ended and the other began was more or less arbitrary.

Turned out, as she awoke now, that there was a clear line between those two, as she surveyed several memory files she had no concious memory of recording. The time stamp told her, that she had actually been activated, her brain only running at its baseline for four days.

She opened her eyes, and found herself staring at a white ceiling. There wasn't much to see, but when she tried turning her head, she couldn't. She couldn't swing her feet over the table to get off, either. None of her motoric functions were activated, and she didn't know how to counteract that.

„Looks like she's awake, now", someone said, and a chubby face crowned with red hair entered her peripheral visions. „She's got pretty eyes."

„IT is awake", a female voice said with emphasis. The woman who Eighteen had been talking to earlier, when mustache man had still been there. They weren't in that little cell anymore. From the harsh lighting Eighteen guessed it was some sort of laboratory. „If you anthropomorphize it too much you'll get attached."

„So?", the man with the chubby face said cheerfully. „What's not to get attached to? Beautiful eyes, pretty body and it's all running using the most intricate and impressive combination of coding and hardware I've ever seen."

„All primary cognitive functions are now online", the woman said. She was situated somewhere to the left of Eighteen's head. Not being able to turn her head and look at her or to even speak was really bothersome. „Do we really need to have it in its concious state?"

„That's where all the interesting software is. You ever tried to analyze a program with the computer turned off? Not happening. Why are her eyes open, by the way? I thought we'd turned off all the motor controls." The man said.

„Apparently that's a function of a debug program that starts running when the skull flap is opened. I can try to override it, if it bothers you", the woman suggested. Just then Eighteen realized that there was indeed a diagnostics program running. Which so far had only noticed that her skull was open, which was also what had triggered the program to be activated.

Of course for an android having your brain exposed wasn't quite as worrisome as it was for a human, but she still disliked it very much. It was a vulnerability, and closing the skull flap required a certain amount of finesse that these humans might not possess, or more importantly that would be hard for her to execute in the event of a frenzied flight from her captors.

„Pity she doesn't come with a USB-port, huh?", the man joked, and removed himself from her field of vision. Opening her skull was the only way to start up a hardware connection between her brain and any other computers, and it hadn't been used since Dr. Gero had died. Bulma had once joked that she could install a WiFi card in her brain, so that the android could surf the web, but Krillin wishing away the self destruction device had been the last hardware alteration that had been made to Eighteen's design.

„You know, it might be a good idea to install something similar in our models", the woman replied thoughtfully.

„But we don't want to risk other people being able to use that to their advantage. Connecting to the brain in this model is very difficult, but I do think that makes a lot of sense from a design standpoint."

For a while they worked in silence, while Eighteen's mind tried to come up with numerous solutions to her immobility problem. None of those worked, however.

„So? Liking what you see?", the woman asked.

„The programming is incredible. It's amazing when you think about the fact that it was just one guy who came up with all of this."

„Can you reproduce it?"

„Exactly? No. But I do think I can get close enough for our purposes. We only really need the most basic functions. I could spend months leafing through the code and not even come close to understanding how the simulation of emotions works, but the combat functions shouldn't be that much of a problem. Do you want our robots to be able to learn?"

„No, most definitely not. I don't want them anywhere close to being sentient. I've seen Terminator, I know what happens when computers get too smart. And since we're already building killer robots we are threading thin ice here."

„So you want more of a weapon that can walk on its own? That should be simple enough. If I base it on the code of this model I can get done really fast. Might just take a week. How's the hardware side coming?"

„Good. We're done with analyzing her built, the prototype looks sturdy. We'll probably start mass production in just a few days."

„That quickly?"

„There really is no time to waste, is there?"

Mass production? Eighteen really did not like the sound of that. Of course the Z-Fighters could take on a few lesser robots, but if they were too many…

* * *

A week had passed since the bomb attack, and Bulma still hadn't gone to see a Doctor. For one she didn't feel quite ready to go out after what had happened, but more than that she was scared that something was wrong with the baby. It was important to know, if there was, but she was scared of finding out. Because really, she felt fine, hadn't felt any of the symptoms Vegeta had had that first day.

But she would have to get out soon. For one she felt a little rude imposing on the Son family by having all of them stay here, and she needed to find the closest office of Capsule Corps to resume her work as company president. Just because her workplace and the entire city it had been situated in didn't exist anymore didn't mean she was out of a job. Capsule Corp had lost important resources and people though, and that really upset their standing. Bulma needed to start to figure out where the company was going from there.

Besides, she could pick up a capsule house and either put it next to the Son family's, if they didn't Going back simply wasn't an option.

At least her family was fine. Vegeta looked much better and said that all of his symptoms were gone. Of course he had a tendency to underplay any injury, but she didn't get the feeling that he was. And she was incredibly happy that the short period of hair loss hadn't made any visible difference to his hair.

She was just going outside to get her clothes off the line they were drying on. She had been borrowing a dress of Chichi's, which was fine, even if they weren't quite the same size, but if she was going to go back to work she couldn't exactly wear that.

She would have to go shopping for new clothes, soon. While that prospect was usually something that would've made her giddy, the reason for it put a damper on her excitement. Especially since she had no choice but to drag Vegeta and Trunks with her, since they didn't really have any clothes anymore, either. As much as she loved them, both of her boys hated shopping with a vengeance, and while they claimed it was torture on them, having to drag their complaining asses through the shops wasn't exactly what Bulma considered to be fun, either.

Just as she was taking the clothes off the line, she spotted her purple haired son coming out of the house a little too quickly for her liking.

„Mom!", he yelled. „There's something wrong with Dad"

She dropped the skirt she'd been holding, and immediately started running towards her son. Trunks gestured for her to follow her, and the look on his face made her even more anxious.

When she found her husband, he was sitting on the floor in the hallway, a hand pressed to his forehead, groaning and with a skin color that looked like someone had thrown up a half digested plate of spinach onto his face. For him to let anyone see him in that state he must've been feeling beyond shitty, and he didn't even acknowledge his mate's presence when she kelt down next to him.

But it had gone away… he'd been fine, even if he'd been pissy about the only piece of clothing he still owned being a pair of spandex shorts. There was nothing that could've triggered him getting worse now…

Suddenly two words popped into her head, and she felt all the color drain from her face.

„Crap", she whispered.

_Latency period_

She hadn't thought of that.

* * *

A/N: Just so it's clear, I've always gotten the impression in DBZ that both the political situation and the geography were distinctly different from the real world (let alone the fact that there's dinosaurs running around), so the conflict in this story will not be based on any real world conflicts.

Anyway, tell me what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Mom?", Trunks asked worriedly, as Bulma was just beginning to descend into a state of panic. She could think of nothing but how stupid she'd been. He'd looked better so she'd simply accepted it at face value, and not even thought to question it. That really hadn't been scientific thinking of her.

"Bulma?", she heard Chichi's voice ask. She hadn't even noticed her coming. "What's going on?"

Right. Focus.

"Radiation poisoning; latency period; I'm an idiot", she quickly summarized. She had known about the latency period, but for some reason hadn't thought about it at all during the past week. Maybe in the back of her mind she'd seen it coming and just tried to deceive herself. That really wasn't a thought she was comfortable with.

"What?", for once Trunks seemed to have given up his act as though he knew everything and now stared at his mother in open confusion.

"It… it gets better, and then it gets worse, and I didn't think of that, I should've known", she said, and ran a hand through her hair, trying to figure out what to do next.

"It what? What gets worse?" Trunks asked. When she didn't reply, he pulled her sleeve. "Mom, what the hell is going on?"

"Language…", she started distractedly. "You know what, nevermind. It's… it's from the bomb. When… when a nuclear bomb goes off, it produces radiation, and that makes people sick." She had a little trouble sorting her thoughts.

"'M fine", a groaning voice next to her said quietly. At least he was aware of people talking about him.

"Don't bullshit me, Vegeta, you are not fine", she said annoyed. Sometimes his tough guy act could really be annoying. But still part of her was relieved he was still acting normally. If he acknowledged being sick it would probably have made her worry even more.

In response to her outburst he just made a lazy waving motion before putting his hand back before his eyes.

"Vegeta, can you tell me what symptoms you're having?", she said, quietly proud of the fact that her voice was shaking only slightly.

"Headache from hell… nausea… have not checked hair." As he was speaking, she noticed that his lips looked oddly red.

"Are your gums bleeding?"

He stopped to consider that for a moment. "… Possibly", he admitted.

"Crap… this is bad", she whispered to herself.

"So… Dad's sick? Why don't we just take him to Dende?", Trunks suggested.

"We already tried that, but it obviously didn't help", Bulma said.

"What? When did you try? he just got sick", Trunks said, bewildered.

"When he first got sick."

"He got sick before? When did that happen?", Trunks asked.

"Well, at least I'm not the only one who never gets told things", Chichi grumbled.

"Just… I thought he was okay!", Bulma snapped. "I didn't tell you, because I thought everything was fine, even though I probably knew it wasn't. I was trying to ignore the obvious. Okay? You two happy now?"

"Um… not particularly?", Trunks said with a raised eyebrow. At that Bulma realized that she had overreacted.

"Sorry… I just… I don't know what to do", she admitted.

"Well, maybe what you should've done from the start is take him to a hospital?", Chichi suggested, clearly a little miffed.

"What's a hospital gonna do? He's an alien. They don't know anything about his physiology, and I don't think drawing attention to that is gonna be particularly helpful."

"So what? Goku is an alien, too, and after his fight with Vegeta they patched him up in the hospital, no problem."

"This isn't a bunch of broken bones! What if they give him something that makes everything worse?"

"Well, you're gonna have to take that risk, because as long as he's sitting in my hallway they can't give him anything to make him better, either", Chichi declared. "Either you take him to the hospital, or come up with something better, fast, if you don't want to watch him slowly die." Under her breath she added quietly: "Not that I'd mind…" but Bulma heard her.

"Oh come on!", she yelled.

"Okay, that was uncalled for. But still, you have to be reasonable. If Dende can't help, as hospital's your best bet."

Bulma sighed. Of course Chichi was right, but that didn't change the fact that she'd much rather rely on magic than on doctors who had no experience at all with saiyans. If only Capsule Corp was still there, they'd have a functioning regen tank filled with synthetic DNA that could probably make radiation poisoning stop being a problem quite easily.

Then again, if Capsule Corp hadn't been destroyed, they wouldn't have any radiation problem, now, anyway.

"He… he's no gonna die, right?", a quite voice next to her asked, and Bulma noticed that her son gone considerably pale at that thought. She looked at him, and her mouth stood open for a moment. Every motherly instinct wanted her to say that everything was gonna be fine and not to worry, but the words just wouldn't cross her lips. She didn't want to lie to her son, and honestly she had no idea whether anything was going to be alright or not.

"I… I hope", she admitted, helplessly, and she could tell that her son wasn't comforted at all by that statement.

The ringing of the doorbell stopped their conversation for a moment. Chichi got up and went to the door, only to come back a moment later. "It's for you, Bulma."

Bulma got up reluctantly. She really didn't want to leave Vegeta alone right now, but something in Chichi's tone told her that it probably be a bad idea not to get this. Whatever that meant.

At the door two men were standing, both in black suits, and one holding up a badge of some sorts.

"Can… I help you?", she asked warily.

"Bulma Briefs, you are under arrest for treason", the shorter one of the two said, and put his badge back in his pocket, while the other guy approached her with a set of handcuffs he seemed to have pulled out of nowhere.

"W-What?", Bulma said, too stunned to shake the guy with the handcuffs off.

"We have evidence of Capsule Corp technology being used in a multitude of attacks against our citizens. The trail led to you", the shorter guy announced.

"But… that's impossible! Capsule Corp doesn't make any military products", Bulma protested.

"It's not me you'll have to convince."

"This programming is amazing. I mean, the intricacies. Making a robot this sophisticated… I don't even know why anyone would want to subject themselves to the sheer workload associated with that. It's cool he did, though", the man with the chubby face announced. He was sitting outside Eighteen's periphery of vision, but he wasn't hard to locate, because he just wouldn't shut up.

Eighteen really wished she had at least enough motor control to speak and tell that guy just where to shove the burrito he was happily munching on right now. Preferably full motion control, though. So she could shove it there herself.

"Yes, it's great", the woman said in a bored tone. "The memory banks are a little messy, though. There's so much data with the silliest cross-references that I can barely make sense of it. Some of this stuff isn't even labelled."

It was surprising how fast you got used to being talked about as if you weren't in the room, or barely above a piece of furniture, but the way they dug through what made up the core of her being and made disrespectful comments about it wouldn't cease to make her mad.

But she was starting to get a little scared, too, even though she tried to avoid admitting that to herself, so they wouldn't pick that up on their screens somewhere. They'd probably be happy about it, and she didn't want to give them the satisfaction. Well maybe chubby wouldn't be all that happy about it, he didn't strike her as particularly sadistic.

"Some of this stuff you just get goose-bumps just from looking at it, you know? And not always in a good way. You wouldn't believe the amount of data that's programmed in on killing", the guy said.

"Well that's finally something interesting, isn't it? Most of this stuff is completely useless, unless you want an elaborate sex toy that can fool itself into thinking it's able to love, but the killer robot stuff, now that's useful."

Eighteen tried not to actively think about it, but all this made her more than uneasy. The amount of access they had to her higher functions was crazy, and pretty scary as well. If the woman could find out which parts of her mind were dedicated to love, she could just as easily delete those. Anything they did could change the core of her being, and losing those things was a frightening prospect.

"Some of these memory files aren't even labeled. It's a mess", the woman resumed her whining. "Like this one. I can't even find the time stamp. Why would anyone make a system assign important things this erratically?"

"Maybe it's something universal, that doesn't have a specific time attached to it? Like a thought, or a routine?", the guy suggested. From the sounds he was making Eighteen was surprised he could still use his keyboard. It should've been drowning in crumbs at that point.

"Well, I'm not sure. Maybe I can access it", the woman said.

There was the sound of a mouse clicking, and immediately Eighteen felt herself thrown into a flashback.

IThe tiny room was damp and dark. The tiny window barely even let any light in during the day, and now, at night, it was hopeless. How long had she been here? By now she had already lost count. Any amount of time was too long, but that barely mattered. /I

Something was off about that file. She couldn't recall that memory at all, and she had no idea when it was. If she could dream she probably would've guessed it was something like that, but in all the years since her initial activation she had never had a dream. Why was there no time stamp?

IThere were no sounds anymore. Was that better than the screaming? She couldn't decide. At least that had told her someone was there. For all she knew, she could be all alone here, now, destined to starve, buried alive in some underground vault no one would ever find. The thought made her shudder. She hadn't eaten in days. Water came pretty regularly, but it didn't really help. She ran her hand along the wall. As the cold stone touched her scabbed over hands it hurt, but at least it told her this was real.

As if that was something to be happy about. Why did this have to happen to her? It was so absurd she never even would have thought about being scared of this happening. Her situation seemed so cartonishly overwrought that it could barely be real.

A sudden sound made her pipe up. The door!

It was being opened. She barely even dared to hope, but what if it was help? Someone to rescue her from this hell…

As the light illuminated the figure in the doorway from behind, she was ready to cry in relief. She quickly got to her feet.

"I'm so glad you…" Then she saw the face. And with the realization of what was wrong with it came the most frightful scream she had ever heard. And she was the one screaming./i

This was probably the strangest memory there could be. As the person's emotions hit her, it was almost like a physical shock. She was pretty sure, now, that whoever remembered this, it wasn't her. She had never, ever, felt emotions as strong as that girl, she was pretty sure she couldn't. The memory didn't look or feel like any of hers, at all. There was no timestamp, and all of it seemed a little hazy, as if she was viewing it through a fog. With the precision and accuracy of her vision it couldn't have been recorded by her. The absence of light simply couldn't look that dark to her.

And what made her sure, that it couldn't be hers, was who the girl was screaming at. Sure, he could be annoying, but her brother's face really wasn't something to scream about.

But before she could continue anaylyzing, the memory took her over again.

IThe eyes! Those eyes. Melissa had thought she couldn't cry anymore, but now she felt the tears rise up again. All of her hopes had been crushed, and what was coming for her… she barely noticed herself saying some incoherent things, as the grip like steel tore her out of her cell, the relative safety of which she immediately regretted leaving.

She tried to struggle against that hand around her arm, but it was completely futile. There was no way she would be able to break free.

God, she knew that corridor so well. The complex notes, pinned carelessly to whichever surface was available, the strange pieces of technology, half of which she couldn't even begin to understand. Could she have seen this coming? Avoided it, maybe? But he'd never seemed anything like the psychopath she now knew he was.

As they arrived in the main lab, it was well lit, but there was no sign of him. There were bloodstains everywhere, though, and as she realized whose they must be, she almost threw up. But before she could even finish that thought, she felt herself thrown roughly on that fearful table. It was as if she weighed absolutely nothing. She tried to struggle, as the restraints were applied, but to no avail. There was nothing she could do, she was very well aware of that, but the idea of accepting her fate seemed the scariest of all.

As she was completely immobilized, the figure removed itself from her field of vision. For a moment nothing could be heard but her sobbing. Not even his breathing. He didn't have to anymore, and the coldness in those unnaturally blue eyes told her that he wasn't even aware of what he had lost.

And suddenly he was there. The psychopath. The doctor. In whom she had trusted, whom she had admired for his genius, whose research she had hoped to help advance. If only she'd had a little bit more of the sixth sense that her brother had had, who hadn't been too happy about taking the two lab assistant positions.

"Please", she whimpered. "Please don't do this. My mom… she's sick. She doesn't have anybody else" she choked on the word, as she said, "anymore. I won't tell anyone, I promise, I'll do anything, just please, let me go."

"My my, I would've thought you of all people would appreciate the gift I'm about to give you", doctor Gero said with a chuckle. He was busying himself attaching all kinds of wires to her. A sudden frantic beeping told her there was a heart monitor, recording her panically beating heart.

"This is…" she stopped before she could say insane. Even though he was a madman, telling him so probably wouldn't be too great for her chances of survival. "This is not a good idea. Just… please don't"

"On the contrary, my dear, this is an excellent idea. You'll become one of the greatest wonders science could ever create. Doesn't that excite you?" He made a short pause, before looking across the room and saying, "Seventeen, come over here, and hold this." She couldn't see what he was pointing at, but she guessed she didn't even want to know.

"His name is Josh", she snapped.

"Not anymore, darling. Just like yours won't be Melissa for much longer." She honestly wasn't sure what was worse, the intention of what he was planning on doing, or the cheerful tone in his voice as he said that.

"Just don't! Please", she said. She didn't even know where the tears running down her face now were coming from. There really hadn't been that much water while she had been awaiting her fate, trying to guess at which point she should've run.

"Sorry. It's all in the name of science. You were always studying to become a scientist. Now this is even better. You're becoming the greatest achievement of science itself!"

"Do you really believe that's what you're doing?"

"Oh, I know so."

He left her field of vision, and noises that sounded suspiciously like a drill started up. Suddenly there was a flash that seemed to come from inside her rather than the outside, as if the brightest possible light and the loudest possible sound were assaulting her at the same time. She couldn't even hear her own screaming.

"Sorry about that", he heard the doctor saying. "The initial neural interface can cause some discomfort, apparently."

He came back into her vision, and she saw him holding a scalpel. "Don't worry. You'll feel like an all new person once I'm done here", he said, and dug his knife deep into her chest.

The last thing she heard, before she lost all feeling, was the long continuous beep that was announcing that her heart had stopped beating. /I

The return to reality came so suddenly, that Eighteen had to blink multiple times before she was quite aware of it. An instant later her internal logs were showing her that she had actually let out a scream herself.

She lifted her hand and stared at the flawless skin. Was it synthetic? She'd never really thought about it, but where else would the scrapes have gone? She'd never had any recollection beyond the point of her first activation as an android, and the sheer terror in that memory, that was making it difficult for her to calm down right now told her that that had probably been for the best.

The emotions were so raw and foreign to her, it was a wonder her processors didn't melt from their intensity. She'd been scared before, for instance when Majin Buu had been chasing them, but it had been nothing like this. Was that what fear was like for humans? Was this to show just how shallow and weak her "simulated" emotions really were?

Her processors and thinking capabilities were usually incredibly fast, unlike any human's could ever be, but right now that wasn't the case. She kept staring at her hand, and only after several seconds came the realization that she could move.

In fact she was sitting up on the table the scientists had put her on, moving her entire body completely freely. And both of them looked scared.

"Well", she said, slowly turning her hand in front of her face. "That was enlightening." She noticed just how different her voice sounded now, compared to that memory. A different pitch, but also colder, less… alive.

"How did…", the guy started helplessly. Apparently he had jumped up, because the contents of his burrito were now spread over the entire lab floor. "I thought motor controls were of…"

"Not anymore", Eighteen announced, and hopped off the table. She turned towards the woman, who was holding her metal clipboard up like a shield.

"That won't help you", the android announced, and ripped the board from the woman's hands, faster than a human eye could follow. And with one single motion, she jerked the board forward and rammed it into the woman's torso.

It was a completely unnecessary thing to do, grotesquely and inappropriately violent, and she knew Krillin would not approve, if he knew, but damn, it felt good.

She pulled the clipboard away, and the scientist, holding her stomach fell down almost immediately. She didn't have a chance. Eighteen walked over to the lab door, but before she left, she turned around to wave at the guy with the chubby face and waved at him with a bloodstained hand.

She was pretty sure she had never seen anyone look that pale before.

She had determined by now that she wasn't on a ship anymore, but that was pretty much all she knew. As Eighteen ran across the corridors, trying to find a way out, she heard the alarms that were now sounding all over the complex. A military base, possibly. She heard people running, and shouting not far away from her, but it seemed what she had done to the scientist had already spread across the base, because none of them had openly engaged her thus far.

The mood she was in, they were doing well to avoid her. She had to be fast, though. The guy with the mustache had a remote for her, and if she blew this chance to escape, she knew she wouldn't get another.

Her processors were already building a pretty accurate map of the corridors she had been running through, but that was hardly helpful. There were so many corridors and so many hatches in each of them that she had no indication whatsoever of whether she was going the right way. Whoever was in charge of painting signs must've had a sick day when she thing had been built.

At least the map she was constructing in her head was accurate enough to be sure she was not going in circles. At the end of several corridors were larger hatches. She guessed that they led to elevators of sorts, but she hadn't tried using one of them yet, because elevators were a tricky place to be when you were being chased.

But if she had to act quickly, so she decided to try one of these doors. At least the labels on the buttons would be able to tell her whether she was above ground or underground. At this point she wasn't really sure.

As she approached the next large hatch, she checked the wall for buttons that would get the door to open, but she couldn't find any. So she raised up her palm and fired a quick ki blast, which reduced the hatch to a pitifully smoking heap of molten metal. Without slowing down she ran in, only to find herself smashing against a railing.

So not an elevator. In fact she was up on some sort of walkway, looking into a huge room. If she weren't able to fly she probably would've found the height of the room dizzying, but as it was, she was wondering whether there was any harm in simply blasting the ceiling away.

But just as she was scanning the ceiling for the ideal point to blast it away, she saw something on the far wall that made her stop in her tracks. On the wall there row after row of robots were attached. They looked kind of similar to a human shape, but they weren't nearly as detailed as any of Gero's creations. It was more like someone had taken a huge lump of metall and tried to unprofessionally carve a Terminator out of it.

None of them were active, simply hanging on the wall, but Eighteen was pretty sure from what the scientists had mentioned about her being expensive, that they probably weren't nearly as advanced as she was, and probably not as powerful, either, but what was really worrying was their number. The approximate number of robots on that huge wall was a number that made Eighteen worry whether her calculations might be flawed. Or rather hope that they were. It was in the thousands, at least. Even if they weren't all that powerful, she wasn't sure if the Z-Fighters could do much, if someone decided to send all of those.

She heard footsteps approaching, and was sure, even before she turned around, who it would be. Mustache man. But this time she was ready for him. It took her less than a nanosecond to locate the remote control in his hands, and even less than that to aim and shot a controlled ki blast at it.

As the device exploded in his hand, he looked mildly surprised. "Now those are some serious reflexes. Interesting."

"You do know that that was your only chance to take me out, right?"

"Oh don't be silly", he said with a wave. "Of course it's not my 'only' chance. I have so many of these things, I barely even know what to do with them all. I thought we could use this opportunity to chat. About your future, you know?"

"Chat? I was thinking more along the lines of me blowing you to pieces. A little garnish for your freakish robot collection", Eighteen replied icily.

"Oh I don't really think you will do that", he said with an infuriatingly unworried smile. "No, what I mean, is that you could have a prominent role in our operation. I'm sure you've gathered, that none of these are quite as advanced, as you are. You could really do well here. Build a career."

"Fuck you", she said calmly, and then raised her hand towards the ceiling. An instant later the ceiling was missing. She took off immediately, flying away as fast as she could. That she actually hadn't blown mustache man to pieces was slightly puzzling to her, but it was better to get out fast. Who knew when one of his men equipped with a remote would come running? Better to distance herself from them.

To her delight, the ceiling she had obliterated actually did lead outside. She had no idea where she was, but for the moment it didn't matter. She simply picked a direction and flew, as fast as possible, to get out of there.

She only slowed down when she was sure that there were at least a hundred klicks between her and that wretched place. Apparently she was now over some huge forest, but she couldn't identify where it was. Still, she lowered her altitude, and flew closer to the treetops, to ensure that they wouldn't locate her on a radar.

As she was flying over the trees, a large bird crossed her flight path. Now that of course, isn't an unusual situation when flying close to the ground, and there were mulitple acceptable solutions to that problem, such as flying a little bit higher to avoid the problem, or simply hovering for a moment, waiting for the bird to pass.

Charging at the bird and ripping it to pieces really wasn't one of these solutions. Not only was it a cruel thing to do, but also needlessly expending energy and staining clothes.

So why would she do that?

As she set down, staring at the remains of what had once been a proud bird, and the blood on her hands, she couldn't recall at any point making that decision. It was almost as if her body had acted on its own volition, without any direction to do so.

Which was, of course, completely impossible.

As her feet sat down on the soft forest earth, there was only one possible conclusion. When she had been unconscious, they had done something to her programming.

Something terrible.

A/N: Sorry about the erratic update times, things have been a little crazy with finals. I'll try to be better next time. Anyway, tell me what you think!


End file.
